Having made its mark as the premier singing game on consoles, SingStar has expanded its routine with some dancing but everything ends up looking more burlesque than brilliant.
With the addition of PlayStation Move controllers, you can now dance to the songs on disc, ranging from NSync’s Bye Bye Bye to Gwen Stefani’s What You Waiting For?
The problem is, I do not know how to dance.
Compared with the Dance Central game on the Xbox Kinect, which has step-by-step instructions and walkthroughs, dancing on SingStar Dance is akin to learning how to dance by watching movies like Flashdance or Dirty Dancing.
Alongside the lyrics on display is a video of a dancer that you watch and try desperately to imitate. And that is all there is.
When they move, you move, but this visual imitation means you will always be a second slower in your steps.
Whereas Dance Central has visual cues informing dancers of the next few moves, and even has a lesson mode for folks like me, SingStar Dance assumes you are a natural born dancer.
Points are scored with the camera tracking the Move controller, to see if it moves in accordance with those of the video being played, but I ended up looking more like a wayward bartender holding a radioactive mixer than a club dancer.
And the other let down: you cannot dance and sing at the same time. Well, you could, if you call holding a microphone with one hand to the mouth, and moving the other vigorously, dancing.
If you use the wired microphones provided, the wire will interfere with spins and other movements. Those who own wireless mics may fare better, but try matching the pitch of the song while gyrating.
This is more a tag team routine, much like Wham, where you get a lead singer and the other guy whose name no one can remember.
Luckily, SingStar maintains the quality of tracks on the disc, with popular tunes like Paula Abdul’s Straight Up and I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor.
For those who want to master more realistic but complex dance routines the hard way, as compared to Dance Central, feel free to mirror the ones in the game if you can.
If singing is more your thing, SingStar 2offers a library of over a dozen game releases and thousands of songs for download, to built your own karaoke collection.
Let’s now SingStar Dance
